UFC's Umar Nurmagomedov Respects Merab Dvalishvili, But He's Scared To Fight

Merab Dvalishvili vs. Umar Nurmagomedov makes all the sense in the world, especially to the MMA purists, BUT ... Khabib 's cousin says, for some reason, the newly crowned UFC champ seems scurred to take the fight.

"It's looking like he's avoiding [me]. He's scared [of] someone who can defend takedowns, who can stop him," Umar told TMZ Sports on Friday, adding ... "I just want to fight."

Of course, on paper, it's the match to make.

Merab just beat Sean O'Malley at UFC 306 ... and with "Suga," the number one contender in the bantamweight division, laid up with an injury, number two-ranked Nurmagomedov seems like the obvious pick.

Umar is undefeated at 18-0 ... and Merab is on a 10-fight win streak, including victories over the aforementioned O'Malley, Henry Cejudo , Petr Yan , and Jose Aldo , all former champs.

Despite the super impressive resume, Nurmagomedov obviously believes Dvalishvili doesn't want the smoke.

With that said, UN told us he has a ton of respect for MD's journey.

"If we're talking about [Merab] as a fighter, I think he's one of the best fighters. He has 10 [fight] win streak. He's champion. He has records, most takedowns. It's amazing, and how he became champion. This guy worked somewhere and he became champion, it's a story about a movie," Umar told us.

So, what happens now? Umar says he wants to fight before the start of Ramadan, which begins on the last night in February. Ideally, the opponent would be Merab. But, if not ... Nurmagomedov wants someone else.

"I just want to fight. I just want to be busy. I just want to be active," Umar told us, adding he'll seek another opponent if Dvalishvili "will not fight with me before Ramadan in January or February."

There's more with the UFC contender ... including whether he's gunning to surpass Khabib's 29-0 record.

While he has some work left to do before he's even close, 18-0 is a helluva start ... and like they say, records are meant to be broken!